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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, September 2, 1998

VICE PRESIDENT GORE CALLS FOR
HEALTHIER, MORE LIVABLE COMMUNITIES

Announces New Targeted Incentives to Encourage Smarter Growth

Washington, DC -- Vice President Gore called today for stronger
efforts nation-wide to build livable American communities as a foundation
for continued economic competitiveness and strength in the 21st Century.

In a major speech at the Brookings Institution, the Vice President
highlighted successful efforts across the country to achieve smart,
sustainable growth in cities, suburbs, and rural areas, and he announced
new federal initiatives to encourage similar efforts nationwide. He also
announced that, this fall, he and members of the President?s Cabinet will
hold a series of "listening sessions" around the country to hear how
communities are grappling with sprawl and how the federal government can
help.

"In the future, livable communities will be the basis for our
competitiveness and economic strength," the Vice President said. "Our
efforts to make communities more livable today must emphasize the right
kind of growth -- sustainable growth. Promoting a better quality of life
for our families need never come at the expense of economic growth.
Indeed, in the 21st Century, it can and must be an engine for economic
growth."

The Vice President said the Administration will work "to put more
control, more information, more decision-making power into the hands of
families, communities, and regions -- to give them all the freedom and
flexibility they need to reclaim their own unique place in the world."

In addition, the Vice President announced the following new Federal
and private efforts to provide the tools necessary to make communities
more livable and to target new incentives to encourage smarter growth:

$17.2 Million to Help Preserve Farmland in 19 States: The
Vice
President announced new federal, state, and local partnerships to help
preserve our most vulnerable farmland. The Agriculture Department
(USDA) will provide $17.2 million to 19 states that, when coupled with
their own funds, will go to purchase development rights and keep
productive farmland in use. The $17.2 million from USDA?s Farmland
Protection Program will be leveraged with state and local funds so
that about $105 million will be available to protect 53,000 acres of
valuable farmland on 217 farms in 19 states.

Location-Efficient Mortgages: The Vice President announced
that
Fannie Mae, working with three federal agencies and several nonprofit
groups, is launching a $100 million pilot program to allow communities
to benefit from "location efficient mortgages." First implemented in
Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle, this program will recognize the
economic reality that our mortgage system has long ignored -- that
families living near mass transit save as much as hundreds of dollars
a month and, thus, should qualify for larger mortgages. These new
location-efficient mortgages, which come with a 30-year transit pass,
will give families more choices by enabling them to live in more
desirable neighborhoods, with higher property values.

New Tools For Community Planning: The Vice President
announced that
the federal government will expand its support for communities with
tools, information, and new computer software to enable them to make
easy-to-understand-maps that show the different aspects of their
region -- from farmlands to parks to buildings -- and even provide
predictions for future growth. This tool, called Geographic
Information System Technology, will make it dramatically easier for
communities to come together to envision and adopt land growth that
suites them.

A Community-Federal Information Partnership: The Vice
President
announced that the President?s 2000 budget would significantly expand
grants for communities to gain access to the National Spatial Data
Infrastructure clearinghouse -- a public-private resource that the
Vice President conceived as part of his reinventing government
initiative in 1993 -- and its implementing body, the Federal Data
Geographic Data Committee, chaired by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit.

Demonstration Projects in Six Communities: The Vice
President
announced the launch of six demonstration projects in communities
across the country to provide technical support for locally-drive
efforts to address issues such as land-use and crime prevention. The
following communities received demonstration status: Dane County, WI;
Gallatin County, Montana; Tillamook County, Oregon; Tijuana River
Watershed, California; the Upper Susquehanna/ Lackawanna River area;
and the City of Baltimore.

New Regional Efforts to Combat Crime: The Vice President
announced,
in conjunction with the Justice Department, an effort to apply
regional mapping software to fighting crime. The program will include
new software -- called Regional Crime Analysis Geographic Information
Systems -- that will be delivered to regional police next year as a
pilot program, beginning in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region.
The pilot program will allow communities in the region to easily share
crime data and engage in a cooperative regional crime reduction plan.